Chris Huhne: Stay another day

Posted on 08. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

Just when we need it, when things are starting to teeter, when the un blues is hitting some of the team, we get another small victory.

After an intense 12 hours of campaining, here in Cancun and at home in the UK, it has been announced that our minister Chris Huhne will remain here at COP 16 and not return to the UK to vote on tuition fees tomorrow.

The UK Youth Climate Coalition had a huge part to play in this, check out what they had to say about it.

‘Huhne’ became a trending topic on Twitter late this afternoon as thousands of people asked him to stay in Cancun. The twitter-storm was initiated by the UK Youth Climate Coalition, and subsequently Nick Clegg made a decision to let the energy minister stay.

Meanwhile, hundreds of young people across the UK phoned Downing Street asking David Cameron and Nick Clegg to let Chris Huhne stay in Mexico for the ministerial segment of the UN climate talks. The Downing Street switchboard was overloaded for much of the afternoon.

“By leaving the climate talks to vote for fees increases, Chris Huhne would have been dismissing our generation twice over,” said Amy Mount, Coalition Coordinator for the UK Youth Climate Coalition.

“The UK youth have spoken, and I’m glad that Chris Huhne listened. We want the climate change minister to stay in Cancun to do his job of negotiating a safer, cleaner, fairer future for our generation,” said Neva Frecheville, a member of the UK Youth Delegation to Cancun.

And to top it all off they even whipped togathe this great little video to say thanks.

Creative, funny, amazing. Chris is staying and we are smiling.

Once again we have proved that we CAN change things here

Now it’s time for us, and Chris, to get back to the real issue in hand and create some change there.

Don’t let the UK screw us over twice in one day!

Posted on 08. Dec, 2010 by annac in Action alert, United Kingdom | View Comments

The UK generally isn’t the most exciting country to track in these negotiations. Unlike my tracker friends from countries like Canada, China and the USA, who seem to have something exciting to write about every two minutes, we hide behind the EU position. And they are generally not being either terrible or groundbreaking in these talks. I guess as an activist I should be happy that I don’t have the drama of Canada or the USA to write about, it means we’re not royally screwing these talks up. But as a writer I could really do with some excitement to write about every now and again!

But this morning I have my wish come true, because news in the halls is that just as the high level ministerial segment starts here in Cancun our Minister Chris Huhne may be back off home. Over in the UK all hell is breaking loose over the governments plans to increase top up fees and Chris has been called home to vote on the issue, as the coalition government need all the support they can get.

But we need all the help we can get here too. Since he has been here Chris has been working with the Minister of Brazil to try and consult with parties and find a way forward with the Kyoto Protocol issue (whether or not we get another commitment period). He’s doing a really important job, this issue could make or break these talks.

We NEED Chris here in Cancun, the UK are some form of leader in these talks, often playing a facilitation and mediating role, we need him to continue doing this.

If Chris goes home to vote to increase tuition fees he will not just be screwing young people over once, by making education unaffordable to most, but twice, by putting our whole future in jeopardy.

We have a very short amount of time to stop this happening (the vote is tomorrow and it’s already early evening in the UK) but let’s give it a go. My friends over at the UK Youth Climate Coalition are bombarding Downing Street’s switchboard, if you have a minute, pick up the phone and let them know you want Chris to remain right here in Cancun, working for our future.

Our Movement has many faces

Posted on 08. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

Today I escaped from the un (and when I say I escaped I really mean it, at one point none of the buses were running to get us out of there). This was because today was the day when activists from across Latin America descended on Cancun to try and have their voices heard in this process. In two separate marches across Cancun peasants, farmers, indigenous people, young and old alike, came together. They came bringing the message that these talks are about their lives.

About their tomorrow. About their today.

I escaped to go join them. To have my voice heard, but also to listen to theirs.

Unfortunately I don’t speak much Spanish…

But it turns out it didn’t matter. Just being there, seeing so many Latin American faces there, I realised I didn’t need words.

Just seeing the faces of our movement was enough.

Enough to know why we are here in Cancun. Enough to know what this is really all about. Enough to know who needs to be heard in this process.

Our movement is beautiful, our movement is powerful, because it has many faces.